Teaching & Learning Update
It has been another wonderful few weeks of learning at Wollert Primary School. I would like to take this opportunity to share some of the exciting work happening across our school as we continue to strengthen teaching and learning for every student.
Parent Helper Course
Thank you to the many parents and carers who attended our Parent Helper Course last week. It was fantastic to see more than 25 parents join us to learn about how reading is taught at Wollert Primary School and how they can confidently support students during classroom reading sessions.
Throughout the course, families explored practical strategies for supporting reading in the classroom and learned simple, evidence based ways to help their own child develop strong reading skills at home. Building a strong partnership between home and school is one of the most powerful ways we can support student success, and we greatly appreciate the time our families invest in helping our students learn.
If you would like to volunteer in classrooms as a parent helper, completion of the Parent Helper Course is required before volunteering can begin. This ensures that all volunteers understand our teaching approaches and can provide consistent support for our students.
We are pleased to offer another Parent Helper Course in Term 4, with dates to be announced soon. If you are interested in becoming a classroom helper, we encourage you to keep an eye out for further information.
Curriculum Day focus: Strengthening Our Structured Literacy Approach
During Week 2 our teaching staff participated in professional learning dedicated to further developing our Structured Literacy approach across our school.
Throughout the day, teachers explored the latest evidence and research that underpins effective reading instruction. Together, we unpacked important frameworks such as Scarborough's Reading Rope and The Big 6 of Reading, strengthening our understanding of how children become successful readers.
Learning wasn't all reading and discussion though! Teachers took part in a fun hands-on activity using rainbow sour straps to represent the strands of Scarborough's Reading Rope. Just like the colourful strands of the lollies were woven together, teachers explored how all the different elements of reading, including phonics, vocabulary, language comprehension, fluency and background knowledge must work together to create skilled, confident readers. It was a memorable way to bring the research to life and a reminder that every strand is important in supporting your child's reading success.
Teachers also deepened their knowledge of explicit phonics instruction and the critical role it plays in learning to read and spell. For our Year 3 to 6 teachers, professional learning also focused on morphology and understanding how prefixes, suffixes and base words work together to build vocabulary, improve spelling and strengthen reading comprehension.
We are incredibly proud that our literacy program continues to be grounded in high-quality, evidence-based research. This ongoing professional learning ensures our students receive the very best instruction every day, helping them become confident, capable readers and writers.
Book Week is Coming!
We are looking forward to celebrating Book Week in Week 7 one of the highlights of our school calendar!
Book Week is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the joy of reading, share favourite stories and inspire a lifelong love of books. Students are invited to dress up as a favourite book character for our annual Book Week Parade.
Now is the perfect time to start thinking about costumes and planning together as a family. We can't wait to see the creativity and enthusiasm our students bring to this special celebration of reading.
Thank you for your continued partnership in your child's learning. Together, we are building strong readers, confident learners and a lifelong love of learning.